Honor what your elders did, build on it, pope tells youth in Timor-Leste

While their parents and grandparents won the independence of Timor-Leste, the country's young adults must take up the task of consolidating democratic institutions and responding to poverty and other social ills, Pope Francis said.

"It is now up to the young to continue the work, guided by the Gospel, to build a society where justice, cooperation, honesty and unity reign," the pope told the young people gathered at the Dili Convention Center Sept. 11 for his last event in Timor-Leste. Pope Francis was scheduled to go from the meeting to the airport for his flight to Singapore.

"Preserve the memory" of what the elders sacrificed and accomplished, he told them, but always keep dreaming.

According to the World Population Review, the median age of the global population is 31 years; in Timor-Leste, the median age is 20.3 years. As the pope noted earlier in his trip, 65% of the country's population is below the age of 30.

"You are the clear majority of the population of this land, and your presence fills it with life, hope and a future," the pope told about 1,000 young people inside the convention center and another 2,000 listening outside.

After years of violent struggle with Indonesia, Timor-Leste gained its independence in 2002. According to the U.N. Development Program, 48% of its population lives in poverty.

Yet, Father Francisco Indra do Nascimento, executive president of the Timor-Leste National Catholic Youth Commission, told Pope Francis that his visit to the country "represents a gift of faith, hope and love, and encourages us to fight for life so that it may become a paradise, full of respect, charity, fraternity, friendship and mutual love, of tangible actions for the homeland and for the beloved church in particular."

Pope Francis took his time with the young people, moving his hands as if he were conducting when they sang and praising their dancing as a way of expressing themselves with their whole bodies. And he asked them, please, to keep smiling.

While he held his prepared text in his hands, and glanced at it occasionally, he spoke mostly from his heart, asking them "to keep moving forward with the joy of youth."

Two young women and two young men briefly asked the pope questions during the meeting, focusing on protecting the environment, preparing for marriage and family life, evangelizing young people and promoting respect for others, especially on social media.

The question about respect was posed by Ilham Mahfot Bazher, a member of Timor-Leste's small Muslim community.

With law enforcement struggling to control street fights that break out between members of gangs related to different schools of martial arts, Pope Francis urged the nation's young people to reject all kinds of violence, discrimination and division and to respect the sacredness of human life.